Flawed flight simulator training data has been linked to several of the most serious aviation accidents in the past 10 years, according to a USA Today analysis.

A review of federal aviation accidents revealed that errors in flight simulator data was to blame for over half of the 522 deaths in U.S. airline disasters over the last decade. The erroneous data was related to pilot instruction on how to handle an out-of-control plane, the newspaper reported.

According to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reports, the simulators convey a false sense of how the airplane responds in situations where it is out of control. The data on which the simulator's programming was based is simply inaccurate, NTSB experts said. In some situations, the simulators can actually cause pilots to follow procedures that lead to deadly mistakes.

In an announcement last month, the NTSB indicated that the flawed simulator training was directly responsible for a Continental airlines crash that seriously injured six people in Denver in 2008.

The Boeing 737-500 involved in that disaster skidded from the runway while traveling at a very high rate of speed. The pilot's failure to control the steering while the plane was taking off in strong crosswinds caused the plane to careen out of control and burst into flames.

According to the NTSB, Continental and its trainers were unaware of the simulators' inaccuracies. The NTSB is now urging federal regulators to correct the simulators to reflect accurate data on how best to react in situations in which a plane is out of control.